Herman Urschel’s wife and children became good at knowing what their father was up to when he left the dinner table.

“We knew when not to take another bite because he’d be coming back with a camera,” said his son, David Urschel of Oldsmar, Fla.

“He chronicled every day of our lives,” said his daughter, Judy Urschel Straalsund of Portland, Ore. “It’s a little bit horrifying” to look at all those pictures.

Herman Urschel, who made a career of processing film for television stations and moviemakers, died July 21. He was 93.

Urschel probably got interested in cameras as a child, his son said, and was fascinated by movies — how they were filmed, not who the stars were.

“We have a closet that’s filled with carousels of slides,” said David Urschel. “We have thousands of feet of home movies.”

The family also has more than 15 cameras their dad owned, some of which are antiques.

Urschel lived near Washington Park for years and left “tons of pictures” of park events and of the park’s various looks through the four seasons.

Urschel took pictures of the family for Christmas cards and photos for family weddings. He once said, “It’s a lot easier to be father of the bride than to shoot the wedding photos,” said David Urschel.

Though many of the photos he took were to chronicle his family, some were taken “to test the equipment,” said his son.

Urschel didn’t take classes. He read books on how to take pictures, process them and fix equipment.

When the family watched movies, “Mom and Dad would tell us how all the technical effects were done,” recalled David Urschel.

In the 1950s, Herman Urschel and two other men started a company, Western Cine Service, that developed film for the city’s first television stations.

The closest film processing was done in Kansas City or Los Angeles, said his son, who recalled TV personnel “lining up at the door” to get film processed after a weekend sporting event.

Eventually, the stations got their own processing equipment.

Urschel often bought Army surplus film-processing equipment, some of which had been used on bombers and submarines, Judy Straalsund said.

Urschel “could fix anything” his children said, including worn or broken camera equipment.

Urschel also processed film for independent moviemakers and commercials.

Herman Urschel was born in Denver on Christmas Day 1915 and graduated from East High School.

He dropped out of college to help support his mother, working at Red and White Grocery stores and making cabinets, said his daughter.

The owners of Boulder’s Sterling University Peaks apartments, who this summer were cited for illegally subdividing 92 bedrooms in the complex, have reached an agreement to settle the case for $410,000, the city announced Thursday.